Back To Mine with Ben Grunnell

Tim Green – Eclipse

Even though this track is barely two years old, as soon as I heard it, I was blown away. The first two minutes are textbook industrial minimalism, but when the pads begin to rise and the throbbing bass-line melody hits, this track takes crowds to a place which few tracks do. A modern masterpiece.

Dan Ghenacia – Garden

This track holds special meaning because it was one of the first tracks I associated with upon my discovery of electronic music, and I was hypnotised by the rolling melodies and pedalled bass. Over the last 10 years the ‘prominent’ underground sound has moved from minimal to tech and on to a harder darker sound, but Dan Ghenacia’s work always feels relevant.

Robert Babicz – Astor (Glimpse Remix)

Simply put, this track has stayed at the forefront of my DJ sets for the last 5 years. It’s the type of track that always leaves members of the crowd asking ‘what was that track?!’ It starts as an exercise in counterpoint with snippets of melody and tribal percussion playing off one another, but as soon as the breakdown introduces the etherial female vocal, the track will set any dance-floor alight. A rare track which works just as well out in the sunshine as it does in the darkest of raves.

Olive – Not Alone

What can I say! As a teenager, this track was already solidified as a classic in UK clubbing culture, and it fills my earliest memories of being out with friends. When I listen back to it now, the rawness of the UK sampling style and it’s garage influences are plain to see. Combined with the soft, haunting vocal, the ambience of this track feels so raw.

Avatism, Clockwork – Conducting the Method

First off, this track has a wonderfully loose feeling that so many producers try to capture, but so few succeed in achieving. Combine that with with the breakbeat style kick, and the incredibly intense analog synths, this track feels like it’s always a few seconds away from bursting at the seams, but at the same, perfectly in control of it’s own direction. A unique 8 minutes which have the power to turn a dance-floor inside out.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4wH-oFaYjU

Reboot – Vandon

I’ve always been drawn to tribal influences in music, and again, this is one the earliest tracks I remember associating with that combined a wonderfully rhythmic tribalism with perfectly simple melodic elements. This track graced Loco Dice’s first essential mix for Radio 1, and hearing how such a tribal style lent it self to fluid, rhythmic mixing greatly influenced me.

Wildchild – Renegade Master

A prime example of how a powerful yet simple vocal phrase can act as a siren to let everyone know that a party is about to start. Similarly to ‘You’re Not Alone’, this track combines vocals with the rawest of drum grooves, and for this reason, Renegade Master is synonymous with the early UK rave scene.

Imogen Heap – Hide & Seek

The fragility in Imogen Heap’s voice is so full of personality on it’s own, but when it’s combined with her incredible songwriting skills, and her mastery of incorporating cutting-edge technology in live performance, she stands out to me as a truly unique artist. This track has a simplicity and a purity that captivates me every time, and when it’s playing, time seems to stand still.

Radiohead – All I Need

One of the greatest artistic collectives to ever grace a stage, there’s not much to say about Radiohead that hasn’t already been said. This track is, in effect, one continuous crescendo, and the cacophony of power and energy it rises to is superhuman, particularly given it’s almost ambient and atmospheric beginning.

Clarissa Hazel Duo – Face

Another track which never leaves my repertoire, this track has the amazing quality of being, from one perspective, completely atonal and dissonant, but from another, making complete harmonic sense. On the dance-floor this has the effect of constantly pulling a crowd from different directions, and combined with the filtered vocal refrains, the track is guaranteed to lock any crowd into an almost hypnotic state.

Familia resident Ben Grunnell’s ’Push It’ proved to be one of the label’s biggest hits of 2015 after being championed by Marco Carola at Music On and charted by Hot Since 82. As such, it makes sense the imprint is now serving up new interpretations of it by three fine artists in DJ Lion, Danniel Selfmade and Lydia Eisenblätter.
DJ Lion’s productions have made their way in to the sets of the likes of Moby, Richie Hawtin, Pan-Pot, Chris Liebing and recently Adam Beyer. As well as releasing on labels such as Toolroom, Stereo Productions and Metodi Hristov’s Set About imprint, the Balkan producer also runs his own label Patent Skillz and is regularly featured in key download charts. His high impact take on ‘Push it’ is a driving, powerful dance floor weapon which cleverly twists the original and is sure to intensify those peak time moments.
Next up, Pig&Dan favourite and Elrow regular Danniel Selfmade consistently delivers outstandingly good productions, and his terrific take on ‘Push It’ is no exception: it has an infectious groove, is packed with swing and attitude and is sure to find its way in to many top record collections.
Last of all, Lydia Eisenblätter is a member of Paracou, a collection of some of the finest new DJ talents in Germany formed by Mathias Kaden. Her excellent remix takes the original on a hypnotic journey and reforms it with an added resonant vocal which gives the track a new dimension.